1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bill handling device that is installed in an amusement arcade where Pachinko gaming machines, slot machines and the like (hereinafter referred to as “game machine”) are installed and that can be disposed in between game machines. The invention also relates to a bill handling device control system for controlling such a bill handling device.
2. Description of the Related Art
An amusement arcade such as a Pachinko parlor generally has an area (also referred to as “bank”) where a large number of game machines are installed, and for players convenience, in between adjacent game machines is installed a vertically long game medium dispensing device (also referred to as “sandwich device”) for dispensing pachinko balls or coins (game mediums). The game medium dispensing device is mounted on a frame fixed in between the game machines. When the game medium dispensing device receives a bill, coin, prepaid card or the like through a corresponding insert slot, the device itself dispenses game mediums or sends the game machine a signal prompting it to dispense game mediums. For example, the game medium dispensing device may be a bill handling device capable of handling bills that includes a bill discriminator for discriminating an inserted bill and a bill container (repository) for storing bills validated in the bill discriminator.
To effectively use the space of an amusement arcade, it is desirable to install a large number of game machines in a space-efficient manner and accordingly the above-mentioned bill handling device installed in between the game machine housings is required to be as small in size as possible. That is, it is desired to reduce the distance between adjacent game machines and install the bill handling device therebetween in a space-efficient manner.
To this end, there is proposed a bill handling machine including a bill discriminator and a bill container installed adjacent to each other in a vertical direction, as disclosed, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-195035. In this bill handling device, a bill in a vertical position is inserted and the bill, if validated, is transported downward and stacked and stored in the bill container.
In the above bill handling device, the arrangement in which the bill discriminator and bill container are vertically juxtaposed requires a large vertical space, limiting the space for accommodating other devices (such as a coin/prepaid card handling device).
Although the above game medium dispensing device is installed in an approximately 40 mm wide space in consideration of saving space, the width can be reduced for the purpose of only storing bills. For example, considering the bill collection cycle by the operator (conducted at the end of the operation of the day), again, the width of the bill container can be reduced. These indicate that the above bill handling device takes up an unnecessarily large space. Normally, about 10 mm (about 100 bills) will be enough for the bill collection cycle mentioned above if the stacked bills are compressed in an efficient manner, allowing the portion storing bills and the portion receiving bills to be located side-by-side. That is, the configuration and layout of a bill transport mechanism provided in a bill insert portion, various drive sources such as drive motors, a bill container for storing bills, as well as the way to stack bills in the bill container in a compressed manner could be skillfully arranged, allowing the bill discriminator and bill container to be horizontally disposed adjacent to each other, resulting in a space-saving bill handling device.
As disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-195035 referred above, the bill container for storing bills is usually configured such that the operator pulls it frontward and grabs the stacked bills and picks them up sideways from the side of the pulled-out bill container. This bill collection process requires labor and time when the operator sequentially removes bills from a large number of bill handling devices. In particular, conventional bill container is configured such that the operator inserts a key into the bill container, manually pulls it out to remove bills, and then pushes the bill container back, resulting in a current labor and time-intensive bill collection process.